“When six people were bathing in Cauvery water at Reddiyarpalayam which is about three kilometres away from Mettur dam, a seven-year-old boy was washed away into the flood.
“The deceased have been identified as G Vaishnavi (20), N Saravanan (35), S Mythili (32), S Raveena (17) and S Hariharan (7).
Authorities had sounded a flood alert in Dharmapuri, Salem, Erode, Namakkal, Karur, Trichy, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Cuddalore, Pudukkottai and Ariyalur.
Since Thottiyam-Thiruvembur is an extremely vulnerable flood prone area of Cauvery river, we have asked the locals residing on the banks to evacuate,” Rajamani said.
In the tail end of the river in Nagapattinam district where the water enters into the sea, the flood-prone areas have been identified through drones.